BLOGS

The real chaos begins The past three months have been marked by a fair amount of chaos. While most of the construction has been taking place in our Indoor Victory Garden (IVG) next door, the deconstruction has begun in our historic engine hall of the firehouse. In order to make space for our new ADA bathroom, contractors took down a wall and cut through thick concrete to make space for plumbing. Portions of the historic tin ceiling were carefully removed in order to be able t

We broke ground! Or did we? While most construction projects begin with a groundbreaking ceremony, ours began deconstructing a drywall. In the interest of minimizing our waste, we wanted a creative way to ceremoniously welcome this new phase of our building and Toro Construction was happy to support! We worked with them to unmount a drywall that will later be reused in a part of the renovation. We use this ceremony as a reminder that is "breaking" something is always easier t

Slow and steady wins the race. It also tests patience. We reported back last quarter that we had finally received our building permit, which triggered the next steps: finalizing our Redevelopment Agreement (RDA) with the City of Chicago and repricing the project with our contractors. We know what we did this summer: spend a lot of time dealing with paperwork! Since we are receiving a significant portion of our funds from the city, we are required to enter into an agreement s